Posts Tagged ‘karachi’

Death toll in Karachi unrest rises to 20

GULF TODAY || Wednesday 15th June 2011, Rajab 12, 1432 || KARACHI: The death toll in a fresh wave of violence blamed on political and ethnic tensions in Pakistan’s biggest city of Karachi rose to at least 20 on Wednesday, an official said.

Renewed tensions between the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and the Awami National Party (ANP), which represent different ethnic communities, have triggered serious fears that the violence could spill over on a wider scale.

“The death toll has risen to 20 with eight more targeted killings overnight in different areas of Karachi,” provincial home ministry spokesman Sharfuddin Memon said.

The violence erupted late on Monday.

The government in Sindh province said it had stepped up police and paramilitary patrols in the troubled western and central neighbourhoods to avert further killings.

Memon gave no specific reason for the renewed violence in Karachi but analysts believe conflicting interests of political forces and poor governance trigger routine flare-ups.

“Karachi is a big city where crime and corruption is rampant and targeted killings is convenient cover for criminal mafia to continue their activities,” analyst Imtiaz Gul said.

“While political parties fight to retain their clout in the city, criminal gangs, involved in organised crimes take advantage of the situation.”

Both MQM and ANP have accused each other of killing their supporters, fanning tensions within Karachi that reverberate to the capital Islamabad, where both factions are also members of the federal governing coalition.

In 2010, political violence in Karachi was dominated by flare-ups in August after an MQM lawmaker was shot dead and in October on the eve of the election for his successor.

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said 748 people – 447 political activists and the rest civilians – were killed in targeted shootings in the city last year.

The area of Kurram district in Peshawar has a history of sectarian clashes between Pakistan's majority Sunni Muslims and minority Shias. — Photo by AFP

Gunmen kill eight Shi’ites in Pakistan

From:AFP

March 25, 2011 10:11PM

EIGHT people were killed and five wounded today when gunmen opened fire on two vehicles carrying Shi’ite Muslims in Pakistan’s lawless tribal region in suspected sectarian violence, officials said.

The vehicles were ambushed in Bagan town of Kurram district, near the Afghan border, and the victims “were all Shi’ite Muslims”, a security official said.

The area has a history of sectarian clashes between Pakistan’s majority Sunni Muslims and minority Shi’ites.

Local administration official Fazal Hussain told AFP the Shi’ites were heading in a three-vehicle caravan from the northwestern city of Parachinar to Peshawar, the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.

“The attackers came in two vehicles. They opened fire and fled, leaving eight people dead, including a woman and a child,” he said.

Khalid Umarzai, another senior administrative official, confirmed the incident and said the attackers also kidnapped over 20 Shi’ites travelling in three coaches before fleeing.

Entrenched militants oppose jobs and education for women in the deeply conservative tribal region of Kurram, which has for five years been a flashpoint for violence between Shi’ite and Sunni communities.

Shi’ites account for some 20 per cent of Pakistan’s mostly Sunni Muslim population of 160 million.

More than 4,000 people have died in outbreaks of sectarian violence between the groups since the late 1980s. (eNewsdotComau)

Another four killed in Karachi violence

A bullet-riddled body of a youth was recovered from under a bridge in the city’s Karimabad area. The victim was identified as one Adnan. - Dawn File Photo

KARACHI, Friday 25th March 2011 | Rabi-us-Sani 19, 1432: At least four people were killed in Karachi on Friday as incidents of target killings continued in the city by unidentified gunmen, DawnNews reported.

The number of targeted killings in the city has risen to 166 in the month of March, DawnNews reported.

A bullet-riddled body of a youth was recovered from under a bridge in the city’s Karimabad area. The victim was identified as one Adnan.

In another incident, an unknown motorcyclist shot dead one Abdul Sattar in the Liaquatabad area. Moreover, the body of an unidentified man was recovered from a playground in Landhi’s sector 36-G.

Karachi hit by fresh wave of killings,arson

KARACHI, 2oth March 2011 : Demonstrations were held in different areas of Karachi on Sunday in protest against a new wave of killings across the city, mainly on political and ethnic grounds, claiming over a dozen lives on Sunday.

The protesters turned violent at a few places where exchanges of fire between armed men and law-enforcement personnel left one person dead. Three vehicles were set on fire.

The protests began when dozens of people, including Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) workers, staged a sit-in for about half an hour on Shahrah-i-Pakistan near Liaquatabad during the funeral of Shahzad Hussain, a party activists killed on Sunday. They set tyres on fire and chanted slogans against the killing and the ‘extortion mafia’.

Violence intensified when armed men opened fire near Teen Hatti Bridge, prompting law-enforcement personnel to act.

“There was a group of armed youngsters who were firing shots into the air and attacked a Rangers vehicle parked there,” Jamshed Town SSP Amir Farooqi said.

Desolated roadways in Karachi with heavy police patrolling. Photo - The International News.

“The firing elicited retaliation from the law-enforcers that left a man dead, but it’s not yet clear whose bullet had hit him,” he added.

There was no official version from the Sindh Rangers on the incident.

Demonstrations were also held in Gulshan-i-Iqbal, Burns Road and Federal B. Area.

Parts of Gulistan-i-Jauhar, Qasba Colony, Nazimabad, Lyari, Kharadar and Site areas were paralysed by incidents of intense gunfire.

A passenger coach was set on fire in Nazimabad and a truck and a bus in Safoora Goth near Gulistan-i-Jauhar.

By the time a ministerial committee of the PPP and MQM decided to meet to discuss the incidents of violence, the guns had fallen silent, although tension and fear kept the residents of the strife-hit areas indoors and business suspended.

Supporters thronged in front of PPP office at Karachi after a blast of hand grenade on Saturday afternoon on 19th March, 2011.

Six killed in Karachi violence

KARACHI: Six people were killed and four others, including a child, were injured in firing and a grenade attack in different areas of the city on Saturday (19/03/2011).

Unknown armed men gunned down one political worker and severely injured another in Taj Colony.

Four people, including a child, were injured when miscreants hurdled a hand grenade at the office of PPP leader Habib Jan in the area of Nanakwara of Liyari.

Police patrolling increased to check the violence in Karachi

Jan strongly condemned the incident and demanded the arrest of the culprits.

Meanwhile, Sindh Home Minister Dr Zulfiqar Mirza took serious notice of the attack and directed the CCPO Karachi to probe into the matter and submit an inquiry report.

Two people were murdered in Surjani Town while armed motorcyclists opened fire on a car in Liyari’s Dhobi Ghat area, killing two brothers Saleem Qureshi and Naeem and injuring their friend. (nDawnNews)

Earlier the news came in as :

Four injured in grenade attack at PPP office

KARACHI: At least four workers of Pakistan People’s Party were injured when unidentified persons hurled a hand grenade at PPP office in Lyari town on Saturday afternoon.

Police and ambulance services said that the injured have been shifted to Civil Hospital.

Police said that they are investigating the attack on PPP office in Kumarwara area-(APP). (eTheNewsInternationalPak)

KARACHI, PAKISTAN — A huge controversy has broken out in Pakistan over the case of Magdalene Ashraf, a 23-year-old third-year Christian student nurse at the Jinnah Post Graduate Medical Centre in Karachi, who was allegedly raped by a doctor on July 15, 2010.

Magdalene is the daughter of Ashraf Masih, a poor Christian, who is said to have “dreamed of a good future” for his daughter after her graduation, but then all came crashing down after the alleged rape.

Instead of a rape charge, a case of simple assault was made by the police against Dr. Abdul Jabbar Memon, which falls under section 324 of the country’s Penal Code.

ANS has discovered from an informant who asked not to be named for security reasons, that a “renowned Pakistani hospital” run by the state, had allegedly declared, in its medical examination report, that a semen specimen sent to them was “not that” of the alleged rapist of the virgin Christian trainee nurse, thus depriving her of “justice in this case.”

The informant then alleged, that staff there conspired together and allegedly declared that the specimen sent to them was not that of the main accused doctor, nor of any of his “accomplices” whom it was claimed had raped the Christian nurse and thus deprived this “hapless and impoverished Christian trainee nurse of justice.”

According to our informant, the Christian trainee nurse was allegedly seduced and taken to the doctors’ mess led by a Muslim nurse and then subjected to “immense physical, mental and sexual assault” by the doctor and two other Muslim men.

According to reports obtained later that night, she was found lying on ground “nearly dead” and “drenched in blood” and taken to the hospital for treatment for her “critical condition.” Read details here….

Paramilitary soldiers stand guard on a street in Karachi on October 18. — Photo by AFP

Gunmen’s spree cripples Karachi, 51 killed

October 20, 2010 6:05:46 PM

AP | ISLAMABAD

Pakistan’s largest city reeled Wednesday after gunmen opened fire in a commercial market, killing 11 people in the latest spasm of violence to underscore the poor state of law and order in this U.S.-allied nation.

At least 51 people, including several political activists, have been killed and dozens more wounded since Saturday in Karachi, a sprawling port city of more than 16 million residents that is prone to political, ethnic and religious strife.

Many killings in Karachi have been linked to gangs allegedly controlled by political parties. The attack on the market occurred late Tuesday and its victims included eight Pakistanis of Baluch descent, said Sharmila Farooqi, a provincial government spokeswoman. The wave of violence in the city has coincided with Sunday’s election to replace a provincial lawmaker killed in August.

Because of its status as the country’s main economic hub, keeping Karachi calm is of prime importance to Pakistani leaders who have already seen criminal activity soar alongside Taliban-led Islamist militant violence.

A major chunk of supplies for U.S. and NATO troops is shipped to the city before traveling overland in Pakistan and into neighboring Afghanistan.

Farooqi said police had detained 55 suspects in connection with the latest violence, and that some were linked to local political parties. Security forces were patrolling the city to prevent fresh violence Wednesday, she said.

The two parties most linked to violence in Karachi _ the Muttahida Quami Movement and the Awami National Party _ have their electoral bases in different ethnic groups that make up a large share of the city’s population.

The MQM claims to represent the Urdu-speaking descendants of those people who came to Karachi from India soon after the birth of Pakistan in 1947. It is secular and likes to speak out against the so-called Talibanization of the city, a jab at the Awami National Party, which represents the ethnic Pashtuns from the Taliban heartland in the northwest.

Raza Haider, the member of the provincial assembly who was gunned down in August, was a senior member of the MQM.

Both parties were competing for Haider’s vacant seat, but the ANP announced Saturday evening that it would boycott the election, saying the MQM would rig the vote. The MQM won the seat. MQM lawmaker Haider Abbas Rizvi said the party had handed authorities a list of 150 alleged criminals it suspects in the attacks but that nothing had come of it. He not only blamed the ANP, but also faulted the Pakistan People’s

Party, which control’s the provincial government.

ANP spokesman Amin Khattak said the MQM was to blame, noting that the killings began shortly after his party said it would boycott the election.

Also Wednesday, a police constable was wounded when someone threw a grenade at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Pakistan’s main northwestern city, Peshawar, said Liaquat Ali, a senior police official. Peshawar is right on the edge of Pakistan’s tribal belt, a lawless stretch of territory along the Afghan border where many militants shelter.

People gather around the ambulances carrying the bodies of slain religious leader Mufti Saeed Jalalpuri and companions, who were killed in the overnight gun attack, at a hospital in Karachi on March 12, 2010. – Photo by AFP.

Panic in Karachi after murder of religious scholar

Friday, 12 Mar, 2010||Rabi-ul-Awwal 25, 1431

KARACHI: Panic gripped the city when a senior cleric of a religious organisation, his son and two associates were gunned down on Thursday night.

In another attack earlier in the day, another prominent cleric, Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Nadeem, was wounded and his son was killed. Police said that Mufti Saeed Ahmed Jalalpuri of Aalmi Tahaffuz-i-Khatm-i-Nabuat, his son Huzaifa Jalalpuri and close associates Fakheruz Zaman and Abdul Rehman were returning from Jamia Masjid Khatman-un-Nabi on Metrovill Road in Gulshan-i-Iqbal area when four to five gunmen on motorcycles sprayed their car with bullets.

Police found the casing of spent bullets of 9mm pistol at the scene. Gulshan-e-Iqbal SP Javed Meher said the attackers had opened fire from two directions.

“The assailants appeared to be waiting at a place for the cleric and ambushed the car when it reached there,” a police officer said.

They were taken to Patel Hospital where Mufti Saeed and his son were pronounced dead while their associates died some time later.

Tension gripped the area after the incident and unknown people started firing in the air, forcing shops to close. A large number of people and students of a seminary gathered at the hospital.

The bodies were later taken to the Aalmi Tahaffuz-i-Khatm-i-Nabuat in Gurumandir.

In the morning, Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Nadeem, a central leader of Ahl-i-Sunnat Wal Jamaat (formerly Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan), was injured in what appeared to be an assassination attempt in the city’s Nazimabad area.

The attack, however, claimed the life of his youngest son. Maulana’s two other sons and a security guard and a driver were injured.

Police said that Maulana Nadeem and his two sons, Rashid Nadeem and Zubair Nadeem, were going in their car to the city courts for a hearing of cases registered against them on August 17 last year during disturbances which followed the killing in Khairpur of Maulana Ali Sher Hydari, chief of the defunct Sipah-i-Sahaba.

When the car was near Annu Bhai Park, two men on a motorcycle opened fire. Maulana’s younger son Mauvia Nadeem, 25, who was following the car on a motorcycle suffered fatal bullet wounds, Liaquatabad SP Abdul Hameed Khosa told Dawn.

The injured were taken to Abbasi Shaheed Hospital. Additional Police Surgeon Dr Liaquat Memon said that one of the injured had been brought dead to the hospital.

Maulana Nadeem received two bullets in his right and left hands and one in the abdomen. Mauvia suffered multiple bullet wounds in the head and torso and died on the spot.

Maulana Aurengzeb Farooqi, the organisation’s Karachi president, told Dawn that funeral prayers of Mauvia Nadeem would be offered outside the Chief Minister’s House on Friday.

Three high profile militants arrested in Karachi

KARACHI || Friday, 26 Feb, 2010 ||Rabi-ul-Awwal 11, 1431 : Three high profile militants have been arrested on friday in Karachi. Police claim to have foiled a major terrorist attack planned for the 12th Rabi Ul Awwal celebrations.

Officials have told DawnNews that three suspects belonging to banned outfit Lashkra-e-Jhangvi have been arrested from Jamshed road.

Police claim to have recovered over 20 kg of high intensity explosives of Indian origin.

Investigators say the militants had been planning to carry out the attacks tomorrow.

Further investigations are underway.

Meanwhile, fool proof security arrangements have been made for Eid-e-Miladun Nabi in light of intelligence that Tehreek -e-Taliban Pakistan might be planning to target the holy processions in different cities of Punjab, including Rawalpindi and Islamabad. – DawnNews.

Political violence sparks protest in Karachi.

Men shout slogans during a protest rally on the streets of Karachi. Several thousands protested against paramilitary and police search operation after a spate of violence in the city. -Reuters Photo

KARACHI: Thousands of people poured onto the streets of Pakistan’s financial capital Karachi on Monday to protest at a security crackdown after dozens of people died in political violence.

Security officials say up to 48 political party workers have been killed in Karachi since Thursday, when the headless body of a worker from the city’s main political party, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), was discovered.

Karachi sees sporadic outbreaks of political violence, reflecting tensions between the MQM, which represents Muslims who migrated from India, the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party, and the Pashtun nationalist Awami National Party.

City police official Mehtab Ali said between 8,000 and 10,000 people participated in the rally. Another officer reported skirmishes.

“We did not stop them from holding the rally. They wanted to go to the chief minister’s house, but we prevented them doing so by firing tear gas on them,” police official Mohammad Ashraf said.

As the wave of killings gripped Karachi over the weekend, Interior Minister Rehman Malik ordered patrols by police and paramilitary rangers to curb the violence. He said political parties were not involved in the killings.

But protesters from Lyari, an impoverished neighbourhood of Karachi and stronghold of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), said the security crackdown was targeting them and not MQM supporters.

“The government is victimising its own people to appease its political allies, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement,” said Habib Jan, an organiser of the rally.

“We demand an operation in the whole city without any discrimination. At present we are discriminated against.”

A police official who asked not to be named because of the political tensions said six suspects had been arrested on suspicion of arson and inciting political violence.

The MQM is the coalition partner of President Asif Ali Zardari’s PPP in the southern province of Sindh, but there remain tensions between supporters of both parties.

The political unrest in Karachi comes as the government battles a fierce bombing campaign by Taliban militants, and as Zardari faces rock-bottom approval ratings and shaky relations with the powerful military. -AFP